The present invention relates to an electronic dictionary and, more particularly, to an electronic portable dictionary or translator.
Recently, electronic devices called electronic dictionaries or translators have become available on the market. Since such electronic devices require efficient and rapid retrieval of word information stored in a memory, it may be desired that rapid input of entry word selection information be incorporated in such devices.
In this aspect, an entry word selection system has been presented as disclosed in Isamu Washizuka, U.S. Ser. No. 414,921, filed on Sept. 3, 1982, assigned to the present assignee, entitled "POCKET ELECTRONIC TRANSLATOR". In this system, entry words are retrieved in turn by selecting a first and a second letter of each of the entry words to be selected. However, such system is disadvantageous in that, when the number of the entry words starting with similar first and the second letters is very great, the retrieval time for a specific word among the entry words may be too long.